Airstrikes help rebels retake key Libyan city

AJDABIYA, Libya - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suffered a significant defeat as his forces fled the strategic crossroads city of Ajdabiya, leaving behind a charred trail of smoking tanks and rocket systems destroyed by seven days of punishing allied airstrikes.

Rebel fighters in gun trucks raced into the nearly deserted city Saturday, firing their weapons into the air and clamoring over tanks in a daylong celebration of horn-honking and flag-waving.

With Gadhafi's forces retreating south and west, exposing more armor to allied warplanes, the question now is how many working tanks and Grad rocket systems the Libyan leader has left, and how willing his soldiers are to continue exposing themselves to airstrikes.

The thud of airstrikes could be heard south of Ajdabiya on Saturday morning. With each explosion, cheers and celebratory gunfire erupted from rebels and from Ajdabiya residents returning to their homes in the battered city, whose fall to government forces a week and a half ago helped spur the U.N. Security Council to authorize a no-fly zone and airstrikes to protect civilians.

Leaders of the 39-day rebellion in eastern Libya have said they will try to exploit the airstrikes to push Gadhafi's forces west. Their ultimate goal, they say, is to "liberate" the capital, Tripoli, and overthrow Gadhafi's regime - but they could face many daunting tests along the way, including his stronghold, Surt.

Atif Hasia, a spokesman in the rebel capital, Benghazi, said that rebel gun trucks pursued government forces to Port Brega, a key oil city 45 miles southwest of Ajdabiya that the rebels captured, and then lost, early this month.

Los Angeles Times journalists a few miles southwest of Ajdabiya saw no sign of resistance as rebel vehicles sped past, hauling heavy machine guns and antiaircraft systems.

Ajdabiya is a gateway to Benghazi and the junction for a desert highway east to the rebel-held port of Tobruk and the Egyptian border. The city controls access to the coastal highway west to oil refineries and terminals, and on to western Libya. A highway to Libya's biggest oil fields runs south from Ajdabiya.

Officials in Tripoli acknowledged that Gadhafi's forces had been forced to retreat from the coastal city.

"In the last two days the so-called coalition - we call it the crusader - they were heavily involved in the attack on the armed forces and the civilians in Ajdabiya and nearby," said Khaled Kaim, a deputy foreign minister. "And that's why the Libyan armed forces decided to leave Ajdabiya early this morning."

Kaim, who called the retreat a "tactical pullback," said the key factor was the "involvement of the coalition forces."

In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama described the Libyan intervention as an emergency response to save lives.

"Make no mistake, because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians - innocent men, women and children - have been saved," the president said.

"What we are doing at this very moment is trying our best and utmost to prevent a disaster," said spokesman Musa Ibrahim, warning that a rebel victory would turn Libya into another Iraq. "If something like this happens in Libya, it's a disaster. I don't think Libya is a good case for military intervention. People will die."

Hasia, the rebel spokesman, called the government retreat from Ajdabiya "the loss of a crucial lifeline for Gadhafi." He said the opposition is concerned that Gadhafi's forces might bomb oil complexes in Port Brega and Ras Lanuf to keep them out of rebel hands.

It was unclear Saturday whether Gadhafi's forces intended to make a stand in Port Brega, move west to defend Ras Lanuf or retreat to Surt, 240 miles west.

Rebels in Misrata, a contested city about 100 miles east of Tripoli, claimed a small victory Saturday after launching a small-scale offensive against pro-Gadhafi forces that have penetrated the city's center along main Tripoli Street and positioned snipers and mortars along the city's tallest buildings.

"This morning Tripoli Street was under their control," said Mohammad Darrat, an opposition supporter. "Now the street is cut in half and none of them can get in or out and they can't supply any food and or anything to their men."

In Ajdabiya, rebel gunmen shouted "To Surt! To Tripoli!" as they danced on burned tanks and vowed to push westward. They commandeered tanks and armored troop carriers abandoned by Gadhafi's men.

Rebels scrawled anti-Gadhafi graffiti on flattened tanks: "Killers! Liars!" The burned the solid-green government flag and tried to set afire tattered green uniforms and boots abandoned by fleeing soldiers.

Cheers and gunfire greeted a rebel driving a captured BM-21 Grad rocket system mounted on a truck. Rocket barrages and tank fire kept the rebels pinned down north of Ajdabiya for more than a week as they waited for allied airstrikes to wear down Gadhafi's forces.

Several tanks and rocket batteries were empty and intact, and uniforms and boots littered the desert. That suggested that some Gadhafi fighters had dressed in civilian clothes and fled south in cars to escape airstrikes.

"Thanks to God! Thanks to America! Thanks to France!" shouted Adel Labidy, an oil engineer turned rebel fighter, as he carried an armload of ammunition from a burning government tank.